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Drink

Blackberry Brandy

A spirit made by infusing blackberry juice with sugar, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Blackberry Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine blackberry juice, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice in a pot.

  2. Boil for a few moments.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool.

  4. Once cool, stir in the brandy.

  5. Pour into bottles and cork tightly.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Blackberry juice
Provides the main fruit flavour and colour, and the liquid base of the drink.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body, balancing the tartness of the blackberry juice and spices.
Brandy
Adds alcohol, which preserves the drink and carries the spice aroma.
Allspice
Contributes warm, aromatic flavour that rounds out the fruit.

The step that matters

Stir in the brandy only after the mixture has cooled. Alcohol evaporates readily and its aroma is lost when heated, so adding brandy to a hot mixture wastes flavour and aroma. Cooling first keeps the spirit's character in the finished drink.

Swap the blackberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Blackberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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